Japan Gaming Guide

A new action slasher from Koei will be coming out in September. Set in feudal Japan, Sengoku Musou Katana will use an interesting control system for a sword based game. Instead of just swinging the Wiimote wildly around, we’ll be using it to aim, and shaking the Nunchuck to fire arrows.

We’re still waiting for a sword based game to do the Wiimote justice. Lucasarts are  also known to be working on a light sabre based Wii title. Which will turn out the best?

[Read]

There’s some good stuff coming out on Virtual Console next month. Wave Race 64 heads a good selection of titles:

Famicom
Star Soldier
Flappy
Akumaj? Dorakyura (Castlevania)
Mario Open Golf

Super Famicom
Militea
Hajimari no Mori
Fushigi no Dungeon 2: Furai no Shiren (Mysterious Dungeon 2, a roguelike game)

N64
Waverace 64
Mario Story (delayed from June)

Megadrive
Shinobi III
Shining Force
Echidantouru
Dynamite Headdy

PC Engine
Super Rathouse
Makai Hakkendan Shada
Power Sports
Dead Moon
Appare Gateball
Power League 4

MSX
Eggy
Aleste

The winner of Short Cuts, Nintendo’s short film competition was revealed as Good vs Wiivil. The five minute short is pretty funny, check it out!

[Read, via PocketGamer]

Import gamers rejoice! The long-rumoured Freeloader for Wii may be nearing release, according to WiiFanboy. The original Freeloader was a fantastic piece of Gamecube software that removed the irritating region protection from games. The new rumours are based on a (EDIT: now defunct) listing on an Italian import site.

This software is perfect for those outside Japan that don’t want to wait for major titles to be released in their region. It will also be a godsend for Japan based gamers wanting to play the English language versions of their favourite games.

One thing to bear in mind – the Wii is an online console; if Nintendo wanted to they could probably release a patch preventing this kind of software from working. We really hope that doesn’t happen though, we need to play Super Paper Mario in English! We’ll let you know how well Freeloader works as soon as we get our hands on it.

[Read]

A new website has launched offering enhanced functionality to the wii internet channel. Head to www.wiiminder.com to get tabbed browsing and bookmark organisation. Go there in a regular browser to see a video of the new service.

Wii owners in Japan can now tune in to the Wii news channel. Featuring a cool interface, users can explore the globe google earth style. News stories appear at the appropriate locations around the planet. You’ll need to refresh your Wii to view the news channel.

The following games are due for release on Wii Virtual Console over February:

Famicom (500 points)
Galaga
Mighty Boxing
Hoshi no Kirby

Super Famicom
Kamaitachi no Yoru (800 points)
Megami Tensei (900 points)
Daimakaimura (800 points)
Sangokushi IV (800 points)

N64
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (1200 points)

Mega Drive (600 points)
Bare Knuckle (Streets of Rage outside Japan)
Story of Thor
Vectorman
Vermillion

PC Engine (600 points)
Vigilante
Be ball
Yokai Douchuuki
Wonder Momo

And in case you were wondering, Mario Kart 64 is due out on January 30th.

Japanese Wii owners have a few new games to choose from this month:

Nintendo 64:
Mario Kart 64

Super Nintendo:
Fire Emblem: Seisen no Keifu

Genesis/Megadrive:
Bonanza Bros.
Gain Ground

TurboGrafx-16:
Alien Crush
Moto Roader
R-Type II
Soldier Blade

NES
Ikki
Ice Climber
Kid Icarus
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

Those of you wanting to play non-Japanese Wii games on your Japanese Wii may be relieved to hear that Datel are working on a new version of ‘Freeloader’, the region free software that worked so well on Gamecube. Apparently, later versions of Freeloader can already be used with Gamecube titles on the Wii. If they can pull off a Wii version it would solve one of our biggest gaming headaches, so good luck to them.

Read the report on their site here

If you’ve seen the recent stories about lose gripped gamers sending their Wii-motes flying into TVs, pets and friends you may want to take advantage of Nintendo’s offer to exchange the strap with a stronger one.  Or you could just take a couple of deep breaths and wipe the sweat off your hands.  Calm down.